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What is a popular mmo mechanic you just don’t like
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Weapon swapping. I hate this mechanic so much and I haven't seen any game use it that I didnt end up just using 1 weapon anyway.
I like the idea of using different weapons for melee and ranged, or using different weapons for offense and defense.
I absolutely hate the idea of having to weapon swap to optimize DPS.
See that’s my problem. Having another option for utility use is fine but a weapon instantly popping into my hand completely ruins a game for me. Like in New world I used sword and shield and a rifle because it felt a lot more natural, I’d use the rifle to nab agro or tag someone from a distance but it wasn’t my primary weapon. Problem is standard MMO roles were in the game, so of course we gotta use dumb stuff to optimize and it just felt stupid and ruins any class identity.
ESO is the worst, I have tried so many times to enjoy this game there is so many things I like about it but the combat, resource management, and weapon swapping is just so ass feeling that I can’t bring myself to play. The fact that there are builds where your front and back bar weapons are the same weapon drives me nuts but MOST build HAVE to swap to do a full rotation of their buffs/dots which is soooo stupid to me constantly seeing different weapons just appear in my hands.
BDO is the only game that did this… okay, and that’s only because the other weapon kept a good sense of class identity for the most part so it wasn’t nearly as jarring.
In GW2 certain weapon skills have weirdly long recharge times, so you need to be swapping weapons all the time if you want to be efficient. There's also gear that does stuff like "cause AOE damage when swapping weapons", which further plays into that.
I just want to play with my weapon of choice without the game giving me the feeling that I'm doing something wrong.
Just play engineer. They can't swap weapons.
I play elementalist for this reason
Same. I'm all for carrying different tools for different situations, but when I'm alternating between the hammer and the screwdriver against a nail because the hammer sometimes goes on cooldown and it's more efficient to use the screwdriver than wait for the hammer, it just feels like it loses the purpose of having different tools in the first place.
This is also why I actually enjoyed ESO's weapon swapping: one of my weapons was for AoE, ranged or some other thing I was lacking in the first one, and I thought it was pretty handy. Unfortunately it came with limited slots that meant I didn't really want to slot stuff that was too situational, so I didn't bring a lot of utility I wanted to because it was sharing the same slots as the stuff that boosted my DPS.
I hate it, even tho NW is by far the best combat i ever played on mmo, weapon swaping is one of the worst ideas on mmo time, close to time gate content
I agree. I actively try to find 1 weapon builds in games like NW and GW2 🫤
in NW you could do it, rip, with the inferno fire staff, you can just use it for the 20% damage buff for melee weapons, and just switch to use the running skills and reset fights
At least engineer and elementalist can only use one weapon at a time.
True, but Ele has 4 elements to cycle through effectively making it 4 weapons for some builds 😵💫 Which is why I haven't played one much lol
I prefer Engi and Ranger 🤗
The new elementalist elite spec has a 1 element trait, can do a pure fire mage build.
Shout-out to the Thief, who has no cooldowns on weapon skills so has a far lower need for swapping all the time.
In GW2 you just play elementalist and you don't have to weapon swap 😀
Then they'll complain about having to swap elements instead.
But yeah, Elementalist is awesome, and it gets shit on unfairly by people.
They were complaining about the roleplay/immersion aspect though, not the gameplay. Swapping attunements is peak immersion to me.
It's just a BS excuse for I want to play something the class isn't (mage)
Like what's the point of calling it an Elementalist if it doesn't master all of them?
Thief for the most part does not need to swap weapons, so it becomes pretty enjoyable.
I have shortbow as my second weapon because it’s nice utility and I switch only if I need that utility. Otherwise stay on my man weapon set 99% of the times.
It should always be a reactive/utility thing. Having weapon swaps be meta for dps is dumb as hell lol
I think D4 does a good job with this in that which ever skill you use, it automatically uses that weapon, so really it's more of a cosmetic thing than anything.
But weapon swap mechanics are always clunky. Weapon swapping should be encounter to encounter - one mob might be defeated easier with one type of weapon or combo, and the other, something else. You can still change up skills with it, but ultimately, it should be situational.
I concur
Some classes in black desert swap between them frequently like sorceress but for the most part its just for buffs or utiliy. When I played musa I only used the awakening weapon
Optimized skill rotations. I want to be tactical and responsive to what's going on not pressing keys in the same pattern over and over.
yea fuck hittin a rotation. i want active repositioning, dodging and blocking.
And stunning, and interrupting, and running away if overwhelmed.
Every mmo I play I say this. I want my abilities to be a toolkit, that I use to navigate combat and the world. Classic WoW had more of this feeling, where you got a bunch of class fantasy abilities AND a large group of combat abilities that you used when the time called for it. I hate this builder/spender or "hit the shiny button" stuff.
I dunno. Classic WoW was kind of the *start* of button rotations.
It became way more explicit in the cata era, but there's a stark difference from how you play something like EQ1 versus WoW classic.
Oh for sure. I loved my Rogue in EQ1. Tons of toolkit abilities. Remember fondly dragging corpses out of the Befallen as a rogue who could lockpick.
That’s why I like healing.
This is why I play a healer in all MMOs: there is no fixed rotation, but you have to use your skills based on what the situation requires.
the only game you can do it is Dofus (turn based) and New World, because the game is more Elden Ring-ish combat, almost any other mmo, you have rotations, its quite cultural from the genre
Literally what drives me to stop playing every single time.
timegating
(Darn near) Nobody likes that, that is done by companies for money.
That only applies for games that charge a sub, or ways to pay to skip them. The real reason is to have something to do between lulls in content.
A lot of timegating mechanics are to help casual vs nolifers. I do agree some don't do it right.
auto attack, auto path, auto anything, if your game needs to auto something, you are just assuming your own content is so bad that skipping it is the best option for the players
Question re: autoattack, do you mean like the basic autoattack, or like, an automated queue of abilities?
I thou he meamt those gacha or mobile play where you make the game play itself
Auto-walk/run is a great feature.
Item durability. Just adds another useless meter to keep track of.
Games need gold sinks.
Paying a sub
On top of a box price
On top of a cash shop
On top of other MTX
Disgusting practices that have slowly been pushed over time and for some reason the gaming community has grown to accept.
Looking at you WoW
It turns out WoW players absolutely devour frog soup.
Yeah but players voted with their wallet with that $90 mount so why wouldn’t they add more cash shop when it’s free money for them. People need to take action on top of complaining otherwise why should these companies listen?
Gamers have zero willpower or impulse control. They just don't, and there is nothing we can do to fix this psychological fact.
This image from well over a decade ago is permanently burned into my mind: a screenshot from a Steam group for boycotting Modern Warfare 2 due to dedicated servers, and over half the listed members were currently playing Modern Warfare 2.
I don’t like this trend of “classless” games. Where anybody can be anything at the swap of a weapon.
I think class identity is a huge part of MMO immersion, and the classless thing ruins it.
Boss immunity phase
Agreed. Its one of the main things I hate about warframe. Like just give them more health or something but dont force me to just stand there
Instanced content. I find it takes away from what makes an MMO, an MMO. Nothing Massively Multiplayer when the entire end-game is based upon sitting inside a 5-10 man instance all day.
Exactly, games like Fellowship shows that lot of people doesn't want MMORPG but just dungeon queue simulator.
Currently? People defending gambling addictions sugar coated as gachapon. This has destroyed the MMO genre and so many to come.
Daily quests
Weapon swapping.
Tribrid classes. Oh everyone can tank, heal and dps? No thanks
Does a Cash Shop count?
No. Anything done for companies just to make money is probably not popular and doesn't count.
I want to say flying mounts but it depends on how much it "cheapens" the experience of the world.
Flying mounts can work, but you have to design for them. You can't just throw flying mounts into your game willy nilly and expect that not to cause problems.
Being forced into the trifecta for everything. More games need to embrace random ass builds a la Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies style.
Or like BDO which there are 30 classes and 29 of them are DPS xd
Having "vendor trash" or just "trash".
I totally get the idea of having low value items, but they should still have a use rather than their only purpose being to clutter up bags because "Beast tooth" is trash but "Beast Fang" is a crafting component.
If things exist, give them a purpose. Like you collect various animal bones, and then you use them when conjuring a Skeletal Warrior.
Easily MSQ that is required. I loved FF14 story but locking content behind MSQ isn't a good MMO design in my opinion. I like the way it's predecessor FF11 did it with story missions that weren't necessarily required but still contained a very good story.
seasonal gear
Mythic plus
RNG for gear upgrade
Healers in party is a glorified dps that can heal. I would prefer if healing/support jobs was more busy doing their specialized role.
Could be anything like active mana/stamina regeneration for the team or indirectly improving the groups efficiency thats not cast fireball
Instanced Raids.
Like much more open dungeons
Vertical progression/ilvl
gear enchantment
pvp full loot
These days - ability scores (could also be known as combat power, battle power, gear score, etc.). I feel like it's so stupid people base off on your numbers rather than whether if you can do the mechanic.
Animation cancelling (to the extreme)
When i used to play ESO you would have to cancel everything and it felt like a bug which was forced into becoming a feature. Even worse when people defend bad systems by saying it creates a "skill gap".
The move away from tag targeting or whatever you call it. I don't like this move to action combat, Fps style. I play MMOs partly because I'm shit at shooters. Maybe I'm old🤣
Agreed, and I am far bad at action games. I play RPGs for the stately way they do things. I want an MMO that is actually an RPG. Give me the tab targeting, more strategic play, character development.
Tab target like WOW
Timers! I don’t care if you give me 15 minutes to do a 5 minute task, my anxiety will cause me to fail anyway. Adding a timer doesn’t make a task more “challenging”, just more annoying.
GW2 and weapon swapping. I just can’t stand making my own goals, I like number go up gear score go up I’m old fashion
Durability on weapons and armor.
Weapon swapping, it’s why I hate gw2.
Dungeons with a Timer
It ist bo content, the Boss IS just a watch
GCD
Open world pvp, if a game has it and no option to opt out of it is given it's a bye bye from me
Durability/repairs
Jumping puzzles
Popular MMO mechanics i dont like...
Well, let's see.
I dont like the shift to ignoring everyone else as a default, as opposed to the default being socialization. (This being an MMO.)
I dont like group activities steadily being eroded to zerg and aoe partys.
I dont like publishers ignoring botting. Like constantly.
Im not a fan of housing being the state it is in, any MMO currently in operation.
Action combat unless it's wildstar
It's a close tie between weapon-specific abilities / classes ( why can't my mage wield a 2H sword and cast fireball? ) or probably my BIGGEST pet peeve: limited inventory space.
If you create a game that has a thousand different items / collectibles and limit me to an initial 40-slot bank tab JUST to create an inflated sense of 'economy' with a tab-bought gold sink, I'm probably going to hate you enough to create a voodoo doll and stick pins in your back.
Singleplayer-focused MSQs.
If I wanted to be the chosen one or experience a cinematic story or whatever, there are dozens of genres more suited to that.
I want to forge my own path and play with other people. IMO, it should take an hour at most before multiplayer takes center stage.
Moving camera with right click n hold
Pre-emptive comment before comment reading most people will say dungeon finder
Fone tuning or enhancment. Mechanic from Korean mmo where you gamble to get +stat on item.
Limited skill slots
Boring/not complex skill trees
Weapons, not classes
Gender-locked classes/races (thankfully not popular now)
Timegates
RNG upgrading of items
Bots everywhere
Housing. It has always felt superfluous and like it adds nothing to the game.
Now, I do love having my own space and decorating it, but I don’t feel like I need that in MMOs. I’d go play a game like the sims, stardew valley, or one of a billion base building sandbox games for that instead.
In Korean MMOs RNG upgrades can change your progression so much, 2 people who started the game at the same time can have completely different experience.
Might get flack for this but interrupting as a tab target mechanic in dungeons like m+ from wow or fellowship just feels extremely convoluted, it’s something you can ignore early on but then turns into a feast or famine mechanic where you wipe if one person doesn’t interrupt
I much prefer mechanics that impact the overall dungeon experience where you might have to play differently as you get into harder and harder levels, things like giving mobs more dmg reduction or more damage output the closer they are to one another, you can limit test how you can play around that but interrupting is hard gated by how many people you have in your group and you can only ever just pull a select amount of mobs before you simply can’t interrupt cycle effectively
interrupting in action combat feels a lot more fluid because if you have a clump and multiple mobs start casting wipe mechanics, you simply go over to the mob and interrupt them and if they’re all in a clump, you can just use an interrupt to clear them all, it makes more sense as a mechanic in those games because you’re rewarding for clumping the mobs together and interrupting is a lot more straightforward as mechanic rather than having to constantly remember and assign which interrupts need to go where for each mob for each dungeon which just gets more bloated the more dungeons you add to the game
RNG gear upgrading, gear damage, race and gender locked classes.
Probably cheap event theming. The best MMO worlds handle it as if the event was happening in-world, not just some Christmas trees near the main city teleport.
The other players that isint PVP or trade
I don't hate reputation grinds, but I definitely don't like them. I guess it comes down to "how much is this item worth my time invested". Or at the very least, my main problem is how straightforward it is, like, I wish some games would give us more ways to gain rep. The current design philosophy in most games (in my experience) is doing weeklies, which results in you having to wait a month or two, maybe longer. I don't need instant reward or gratification, but these things drag out so much I find myself questioning "was it even worth it" by the end.
Deliberately abysmal drop rates.
I loved BDO when I played, top guild, full 100 v 100 v 100 castle raids, etc.but the gear regression (or dlturning to dust) killed it for me.
Rolled all my gear, failed every one, and quit forever.
ilvl
Tab targeting. Only black desert got the combat right, sadly that's the only thing the game does right these days.
Tab targetting. Its so incredibly boring
Instances
Horizontal Progression.
Gacha
Quests…
They replace traditional farming, but they're just a series of simple, repetitive and often mandatory tasks to complete in order to progress.
That and the tendency to guide and indicate everything on the HUD/map, so much so that you just end up following a marker on the map, ignoring dialogues that have become pointless, and reaching the endgame in a couple of weeks, hoping it will be interesting.
Some games include auto walk to quest on top of that, wich I don't like either
Enemies levelling to match player level. Sometimes I do, in fact, want to just blast through a zone oneshotting everything in sight.
simple crafting. whether its cooking, smithing, or tailoring. its all just click button and wait for bar to load. id like to see more depth to crafting.
Bind on Equip/Pickup gear.
Look I don’t mind if some elaborate quest item is BOP or some other kind of rare item. I miss gear being random enough to trade or sell to other players, or at least have crafting in the game. Hooking people up with gear you found or giving them your old stuff was always cool to me.
Time gating and stationary combat, which just relies on you hitting the same rotation over and over again without any break at all.
Raid/dungeons locked behind gear scores.
Any form of underwater content
Weapon swapping
Any kind of forced crafting fishing tree cutting or any mundane silly task that is necessary for advancement idc if it’s in the game poeple love it but don’t make it mandatory if you want to progress
Instance dungeon
Instanced-only housing. It's better than nothing, but if random player can't stumble upon it and check it out then what's the point?
Rolling a new character to experience a new class. I'm well sick of it by now. After experiencing FFXIV, I can't help but hate any part of managing multiple characters.
It reinforces the RPG feeling of everything for me, too. I have built this one character and I'm progressing everything on this character I love.
As a side complaint, gender locked races/classes are stupid wherever they crop up.
transmog / wardrobe
ruins immersion. makes players do designer's work.
Idk if i would call it "mechanic" but i hate ground mounts / flying on dragon is okay 🥹
Global auction house that basically grants you access to basically any and all items at any point in the game. I really loved the Lineage 2 system where you could instead set up a player run shop and basically just had a market square in the bigger cities. Or if you needed skmething more niché, you had to actually chat ppl up and bargain with them for the price.
MMOs that don’t let me customise my hud. From moving things around to making it more transparent
Automatic queues for dungeons.
Because it bring the death of mmos. MMORPG's are all about communication and the feeling to be part of something that's moving, living. You're never alone, you meet people, there are other ones waiting in front of a dungeon, some are friendly, some are not. Because playing a mmo is not only about having a powerful character, but to be in a community.
Queues are the end of theses discussions, the end of meeting random people in front of dungeons, on making friends with random people because it takes time to recrute companions.
Why are dungeon queues so bad? I personally hated the alternative of spamming general chat looking for a group all day. If I want to walk around the open world doing random group quests or PvP I play with my guild. Queues are also helpful for gamers who have limited time to play.
matchmaking. it instantly kills my immersion. thats why still old school knight online is the best in my book
its such a QOL thing that kinda kills the whole game world to me
you wanna do pvp? then you go to PVP area which you know lot of ppl there specifically for pvp and do your pvp stuff instead of standing in the city all day and queue for arena/battleground over and over and over
you want pve? then you go to pve area and do your pve stuff. but now again, same thing, you stay in the city all day and match for some dungeon over and over again. maybe even many times every day for dailies(like tnl)
Classes.
Wouldn’t call that a game mechanic, but i hate it when modern Mmorpgs deny necessity to cooperate with other players in order to progress further. Modern mmos follow the call of lasy casuals and are too optimized for solo play. Which breaks the main advantage of mmorpg as the genre for me.
Fishing. What a pointless mechanic.
being forced to wear a spesific gear and not being able to use the other weapons in the game.
yes i love ESO xd
group finder
Its obviously all different people but I think like every mechanic has been mentioned lol - really reinforcing that this sub just doesnt like MMOs or theyre just chasing their dream idea of a "perfect mmo" for them that wont ever exist.
Braindead take
MSQ and crafting.
tab target combat and housing
Classes. I like having 1 character
Fast travel
Dungeon finders that teleport people
Speed running
First 2 take away from the adventure and turns the game into a job. 3rd one just breeds assholes
Not really popular outside this sub but healbotting is just boring. Healers that also actively participate in combat are simply more engaging.
Cooldowns. Just let me use the move
ESO is the game for you
tab targeting. Ruins so many mmorpgs.
Can I ask why?
Questing for exp and gear.
Why pretend that I have goals and options, and that this is an actual functioning world, when I get asked to pickup three apples for a poor, sick farmer and they immediately give me a suit of magical plate mail that is indisputably better to any other gear I could get my hand on, and spontaneously make me a better fighter by dumping more exp on me than I'd get fighting 100 equal leveled mobs?
If you're gonna do that, why bother trying to create a narrative or even having a leveling system to begin with? Even worse if there is an actual crafting system made totally obsolete by the constant gear from doing mindless kill/fetch questing.